The manufacture facility of the Allante is irrelevant. The fact was that Pininfarina clearly realized that a 20 year old model that was being produced in the hundreds (not thousands) was not profitable. Its simple math. How could they possibly sustain such losses? And had Cadillac turned to Bertone instead of Pininfarina for the production of the Allante, you can bet there would have been no more X 1/9 post '86.

Bradly to your point, US auto sales in the beginning of the 80's were about 25% less at the end of the 70's. I think most of us here remember that economic down turn... so yes, I would agree

I would argue the actual end of production was caused by a lack of sales and should have occured in 1982. If FIAT was selling these cars in a profitable way they would have remained in production. Also notable is that pininfarina the manufacturer wasn't the same as the company who paid them to manufacture the cars and use their logo.

"who"...."them"....."their", could you please clarify? I was having a hard time following. Are you referring to AIA/Brickin essentially contracting with Pininfarina to manufacturer the cars and pay Pininfarina to use its name as the "marque"?

The importer - IAI - used the brand names pininfarina and Bertone, but did not manufacture the cars. I am saying that one should not confuse the marketer and importer - IAI - with the manufacturer they (IAI) pay, indirectly or not, for the cars. I'm not sure anyone lost money in this crusade, but I doubt much was made in profit. I would have hated to be the last mile, the dealer, trying to get parts from FIAT or pininfarina or Bertone.

The Merc came with a straight 6, not V6. Even with the V8 though, was more a cruiser that could get a chirp coming out of the corner than a carving sports car. More akin to the Alfa spider in that regard, than true competition for the 124 Spider.